Altitude Music is planning on changing the way things are done in the production music industry using its innovative Stem Packs, writes Paul Watson

0

SHARES

Altitude Music is a new start-up located in Brick Lane, London. Founders and composers Scott Doran and Caspar Kedros set about creating a catalogue of relevant, contemporary music after coming to the conclusion that production music would be where programme makers would turn when they needed to cut costs. They have released 10 albums since the company launched in August 2010 and plan to release a further 15 in 2011. Doing away with the industry standard log-ins and passwords on its audition and download website, Altitude is offering all of the songs in its catalogue as Stem Packs. A Stem Pack, which Altitude believes will take production music to new heights, includes up to six audio sub-mixes of each song; and the audio from each can be re-mixed as required. MTV recently used an Altitude track on Alexa Chung’s new Gonzo rock show; and using the Stem Pack was able to re-edit the sound to fit the picture. Altitude’s co-founder, Scott Doran, says that because producers and editors tend to find badly designed library music websites so frustrating, Altitude set out to design the quickest site of its kind to get users the music they need with minimal fuss. “In an age of Spotify and illegal file sharing, we thought - let people have the music for free if they just want to listen to it,” explains Doran. “We are relying on the honesty of programme makers to credit us where they use our music and pay the appropriate license; so yes, we are giving the music away if you look at it like that.” Co-founder Caspar Kedros says Altitude wants to rid library music of its bad reputation; and that MCPS Production Music can be a great resource for programme makers on a budget. Because Altitude is a new company, it was able to utilise its Stem Packs from day one, which it believes is to its advantage over long-established libraries. “We cover lots of genres, but always with credibility,” Kedros insists. “When you are all about making music ‘fit’, you want to give producers and editors as much freedom as you can; and Stem Packs do just that. We expect Stem Packs to become more commonplace in the industry as editors demand this extra flexibility.” www.altitude-music.com

The Association of Sound Designers (ASD) is a new organisation deciated to representing the interests of sound designers in the UK theatre industry, and launched at PLASA on Sunday, writes Paul Watson.

Julie’s Bicycle has been striving to make music greener since its inception in 2007; and JB’s operations director Catherine Langabeer reveals to Paul Watson that SustainabilityAV could be the perfect platform to get its message to the masses…

Tony Moore has been promoting free music across London for more than 15 years; and now he's looking to do the same across the pond. Moore talks candidly to Paul Watson about his remarkable musical life so far and his statestide masterplan...

Matt Napier has just returned from a six-month stint with Kylie on her Aphrodite tour. Although he began as a FOH engineer, he fell into monitors and has worked with a string of pop acts including Blue, Madonna, and The Spice Girls. Paul Watson talks to Napier about how his role has changed over the years...